‘Plus-one’ on BCS agenda

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – As they kicked off three days of meetings at an oceanfront resort, the Bowl Championship Series overseers appear to have a better chance of getting a sunburn than making any major changes in the controversial system.

“I continue to sense a certain comfort level, if you will, with the current status of things with the BCS,” BCS coordinator John Swofford said after Monday’s session. “I think it’s been a pretty stable few years.”

Still, the commissioners of the 11 major college football conferences, along with Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White, will have their most detailed discussions to date of the plus-one model, which could use two bowls as semifinals and another as a national title game, with the four participants seeded.

That talk will take place Wednesday, with Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive presiding.

“We’ll have a pretty specific discussion about that,” Swofford said. “Up to this point, a lot of it, in some circles, has been somewhat conceptual. At some point, it needs to be a reasonably specific discussion and the potential ramifications of what that might be. We’ll get there while we’re here.”

With negotiations on the next television contract set to begin in the fall, there’s pressure to leave South Florida with some sense of what the BCS will look like after the present Fox deal expires in two years.

“There’s a lot to be done coming out of these meetings, and these meetings will help us lay the foundation of where we go with the next cycle, including format, including television, including the bowl partnerships,” Swofford said.

The plus-one may not seem complicated. But the plan requires unanimous approval, and the Big Ten and Pac-10 have made it clear they oppose it. Other conferences have been noncommittal.

Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said Monday that moving to a plus-one would equate to a playoff, and he sees no support for that option among the league’s presidents.

Any new formula would have to work around the Rose Bowl’s contract with ABC, the Pac-10 and the Big Ten, which runs through the January 2014 game

Monday, the BCS announced its oft-tweaked formula will undergo no changes this season. The BCS will retain the same six computer rankings services and will use the Harris Poll for the next two years. The Harris and coaches’ polls will still account for two-thirds of a team’s BCS average, with the computers accounting for the other third.